Call of Duty: Ghosts - Review

Posted: 11/05/13

On paper, Call of Duty: Ghosts has everything it needs. There’s plenty that can be branded “new,” including new modes, new maps, and new guns. Yet using the word “new” in relation to Ghosts is almost disingenuous. This sequel generates little excitement. It’s the kind you play because it’s familiar and you know what you’re getting.

Due to an embargo, we’re unable to comment on the Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Ghosts. All of the multiplayer footage in the review is from the PlayStation 4 and all of the campaign footage is from the Xbox 360.

Single-player is generally the least memorable portion of any Call of Duty, and Ghosts is no different. The game begins with a massive attack on the United States by a group known as the Federation. Why is the Federation attacking? It’s unclear. Fast forward 10 years and what’s left of the American military is attempting to fight back. The group seems to exist solely to give the player something to shoot. Rather than making you feel like you’re thwarting a significant threat, every encounter amounts to little more than target practice.

Throughout the story you encounter the “Ghosts,” a squad that, for some reason, seems like the best hope for victory. Just like the Federation, the Ghosts barely have an identity. You’re told time and again that they’re an elite organization, but they feel the same as every other heroic force in every other Call of Duty game. They shoot things, they drive vehicles, and they explode stuff with the best of them, but in no way are they unique. The Ghosts aren’t even likeable, with each having the same “gruff and tough” attitude. Everyone blends together in such a way that you’ll have a hard time remembering names, but you won’t care. These aren’t interesting characters. They exist to make sure you always know where the highlighted indicator is when something needs to go boom.

Playing the campaign invites an almost uncanny sense of déjà vu, since Call of Duty: Ghosts employs innumerable clichés like it’s trying to check items off an invisible list. There’s a mission in a jungle, a mission on a speeding train, and one in a destroyed sports stadium. The settings that are atypical, like outer space and deep sea diving, are woefully underplayed. Even in these areas you’re still mostly doing the same thing you always do, namely hiding behind cover and shooting enemies that stand in one spot and occasionally poke their head out.

One of the campaign’s most touted features, the presence of your canine comrade Riley, manages to be a worthwhile addition. It’s novel using the pooch as a weapon, either by controlling him directly or by commanding him to attack while you stay in cover. Every Call of Duty game has you killing things behind the scope of a rifle or manning a turret, but this is the first time you can bite someone to death. It’s darkly comedic and appropriately vicious.

Riley doesn’t appear much outside of the first few missions, which ends up working in the game’s favor. He shows up just often enough to make his appearances noteworthy. It’s too bad that you hardly interact with Riley outside of combat, which makes him feel more like an accessory than a companion.

The game fares better in multiplayer, although mechanically Ghosts is largely the same. New modes try to distinguish Ghosts from other Call of Duty games, with limited success. One of the best additions is a smart variation on Search and Destroy. The new Search and Rescue allows you to revive teammates as long as you snatch their dog tag after they drop. As in Kill Confirmed, the scramble for dog tags enhances what was already a great mode with a stronger emphasis on teamwork. Your team is more likely to stick together since tags are easier to grab if everyone is in a group.

Like Search and Rescue, Safeguard is another smart mutation of a previous mode. Based on Survival from Modern Warfare 3, Safeguard has you and up to three teammates fighting waves of enemies as you try to hold out for as long as possible. In Survival you purchase weapons and equipment between rounds, but in Safeguard, new weapons are acquired from crates that appear scattered across the map. It’s a welcome change since it adds tension, forcing you to choose between staying safe or putting yourself at risk for a new gun. Another clever change is that weapons now “level up.” Enemies occasionally drop stars that will make whatever gun you’re holding more powerful, and you have to coordinate with your team to decide who needs the extra level the most at any given time.

Other new modes also remix past ideas, but not as effectively. In Blitz, each team scores by running into the opposing team’s zone. It’s capture the flag without the flag. Giving everyone the ability to score reduces the mode to a mad rush. The equally flawed Cranked is a deathmatch variant that puts you at odds with teammates. After a kill, you have 30 seconds to take someone else down before you explode. Since self-destruction is always the most pressing concern, it’s almost impossible to work as a team. It’s just too chaotic to be enjoyable. Finally, Squads amounts to little more than glorified Combat Training. You can customize AI squad members and then use them to square off against another player’s crew. It’s fine for what it is, but it won’t be long before you want to return to less predictable human opponents.

Extinction seems like Infinity Ward’s answer to Treyarch’s popular Zombies mode, but it plays much differently. Whereas Zombies has you surviving an endless assault for as long as possible, the goal of Extinction is to destroy a set number of alien hives and then escape via helicopter. This process involves a large drill, which you have to carry from hive to hive and defend once it’s planted. Ideally, each of your team members will pick a different class, like an engineer who can repair the drill more efficiently, a weapon specialist that can do more damage, and so on.

The mode’s crippling flaw is that there’s no reason to replay it once you’ve finished. As soon as you realize a well-rounded team is crucial and sentry guns destroy pretty much anything, Extinction is fairly easy. Since there’s only one map and always the same goal, you can see everything Extinction has to offer in a day. The mode is a good idea, but it doesn’t provide any reason for players to come back.

The way Ghosts looks doesn’t help sell it, either. Small changes like better lighting and more convincing-sounding weapons are certainly appreciated, but Ghosts doesn’t look or feel much different than the original Modern Warfare. This is less true of the PlayStation 4 version, where the 1080p native resolution puts a nice shine on aging tech, but the game doesn’t provide the next-gen “wow” you’d hope for.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is certainly not a bad game, but it offers few surprises. Although Black Ops II wasn’t always successful, it felt like it was conscious of stagnation and attempted to push the series forward through player choice in the campaign and the introduction of the 10-point system in multiplayer. By comparison, Ghosts seems almost afraid of screwing anything up. This is a series that once redefined first-person shooters with the seminal Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but Ghosts has little interest in change. If you’re looking for more of the same you’ll get it, but not much else.

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